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Four potato chip manufacturers recently settled a lawsuit with the State of California and agreed to reduce the levels of a carcinogen found in starchy foods over the next three years. The carcinogen, acrylamide, is produced naturally in starchy foods when baked or fried at temperatures over 120° F.
What we've had trouble wrapping our heads around was: how to reduce those acrylamide levels while still baking or frying potatoes. So we called a few snack manufacturers to get some ideas. Of the three, for Peerless Potato Chips in Gary was busy and a spokesman for Evans Foods in Back of the Yards — makers of tasty pork rinds —hung up on us (TWICE!) when we uttered the word "cancer."
We did speak to a spokeswoman for CJ Vitner's in upstate Freeport. The spokeswoman said that Vitner's has been keeping tabs on the California lawsuit, but as of now don't have a plan in place to reduce acrylamide levels and are waiting word from the FDA on how to proceed. If anyone out there knows a food scientist, we'd love to speak with them about this. [CNN, via AP]
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Now seems like the right time to introduce my line of sous-vide chips. They're poachtastic™!
initiate smug self-satisfaction release for hating potato chips. ...except the baked ones from ruffles. damn, i'm fucked.
Good little explanation of what is going on, and how the food industry is trying to reduce acrylamide levels:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2008/08/looks-like-fren.html
While I am a food scientist, my line of work is in canned fruit and aseptic fruit juices. From what food science journals I've read, however, some of the potential ways to reduce acrylamide in potato chips and french fries are by using genetically modified potatoes with lower sugar levels, by soaking potatoes in bamboo leaf extract, by using various anti-oxidants, or even by soaking potatoes in a solution of amino acids (mainly lysine and glycine) prior to frying.
I'm not a food scientist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.